On the mid-morning of that fateful day, Ned's bin lorry had arrived in the village of Moortown. He was on the street collecting bins when two gunmen appeared and called his name before opening fire. After being hit Pte Gibson ducked behind a small wall, but the terrorists shot him again several times as he lay on the ground, both in the head and torso. He was already dead when the ambulance arrived.
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| Pte Gibson and his daughter Marlene |
The 22-year-old lived in the village of Coagh with his wife and three-year-old daughter. As a binman he was employed by Cookstown Borough Council, but being the sole breadwinner had recently signed up with the UDR to make some extra money. He had passed out basic training just two weeks prior to his death and had not received a personal protection weapon.
No-one was ever arrested for his murder, although Pte Gibson's widow believes that the men responsible were later shot dead by the SAS. The terrorists were ambushed in June 1991 as they lay in wait to murder another part-time UDR soldier, just around the corner from the Gibson family home in Coagh. One of the three terrorists shot dead that day was a cousin of the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland - Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill.
